What major historical events do you remember?
I’m not French, but whenever I read Charles Dickens’ A Tale of Two Cities, I feel like I’m right there in the middle of the French Revolution. He doesn’t just tell a story, he makes you see, hear, and almost smell the streets of Paris, alive with fear, anger, and tension. That’s what made me want to read more about the French Revolution and the fates of the aristocrats who lived through or died in it.
For example, the streets of Paris in the book are always tense. People are whispering, watching, and waiting for the next act of violence. Dickens captures it perfectly when he writes about the city:
“It was the best of times, it was the worst of times… the period was so far like the present period, that some of its noisiest authorities insisted on its being received, for good or for evil, in the superlative degree of comparison only.”
Then there are the moments that really bring the revolution to life. When the people attack the Evrémonde estate, it’s not just about politics it’s about years of anger and injustice boiling over. Dickens writes:
“The lives of the oppressed were but the measure of the cruelty of their oppressors. It was a judgment that the people executed themselves.”
Reading that, I could almost picture the mob, see their fury, and imagine the terror of the aristocrats who once lived in untouchable privilege. The guillotine scenes, especially the sacrifices of characters like Sydney Carton, make the horror and the heroism feel personal. When Carton goes to the scaffold, he thinks:
“It is a far, far better thing that I do, than I have ever done; it is a far, far better rest that I go to than I have ever known.”
It’s heartbreaking and inspiring at the same time. Through him, the revolution isn’t just historical, it’s human. It shows how ordinary people and extraordinary acts intersect in moments of chaos and terror.
-Ashley✨
Ashley's Lil World 